On 19 March, the National Secular Society held its annual Secularist of the Year award ceremony. The winner this year was Educate Together which promotes secular education.

At the ceremony, two previous winners of the NSS Secularist of the Year award, Maryam Namazie and Peter Tatchell, were honoured for their recent campaigning to defend free speech on university campuses. Both have put themselves at personal risk after speaking at University events that were deemed to have “upset” some students. Their work has brought to a national audience the whole issue of student leaders’ over-sensitivity to topics raised in free debate.